Our leaders of Intelligence insist there’s no refutin’The hacking of the Democrats was ordered up by Putin.But Trump by all accounts is not the slightest bit affectedIn Putin, it appears, he sees his qualities reflected.

The consensus finding of the U.S. chiefs of intelligence agencies was that the Russians hacked the Democratic Party’s files during the2016 election, which could only happen with Vladimir Putin’s approval. This has provoked furious criticism from Democrats and some Republicans, skepticism from Donald Trump, and an eruption of newspaper and on-line satire.

Andy Borowitz’ headlines in the New York Times declared that “Kremlin names Trump employee of the month”; “Putin agrees to receive intelligence briefings in Trump’s place”; and “Trump to split time between Trump Tower and Kremlin.” The Onion suggested the hacking was because “Russians finally wanted to participate in democracy”; that Trump’s way to handle Putinwould be an “aggressive, multi-tiered strategy of enablement, passivity and accommodation”: and that Trump and Putin shared “the same personality disorders.”

Cartoonists drew Trump preening over a collection of Putin nesting dolls; Trump and Putin embracing, while Putin sticks a “Kick Me”label on Trump’s back. Stephen Colbert introduced Trump and Putin cartoons on his show after wisecracking: “while Donald Trump’s position on a number of issues is unclear, he has a firm position on Putin, and I’m going to guess it’s missionary.”

A different perspective came from cartoonist Signe Wilkinson in the Washington Post: Uncle Sam complains: “The Russians invaded our computers”, while the US is shown operating hundreds of Billions of dollars’ worth of electronic spying equipment.

On this issue I confess that when we’re told that it’s immoral Our conduct in the past has given ample cause to quarrel.I hardly need to mention them, I’m sure that you can list ‘emThe many times we intervened in someone else’s system.

Posted on Tuesday, January 10, 2017 (Archive on Monday, October 07, 2019)